Life-size gingerbread home built at Palm Desert resort

A life size gingerbread house has been built at the JW Marriott Desert Springs Resort in Palm Desert.
Jay Calderon/The Desert Sun

Buy Photo

JW Candyland: A Dessert Experience is a full size gingerbread house at the JW Marriott Desert Springs Resort in Palm Desert that is open to the public, December 9, 2016. (Photo11: Jay Calderon/The Desert Sun)Buy Photo

One that’s made of gingerbread bricks and held together with icing. One that has flowerbeds filled with gumdrops and sprouts candy canes. One that smells like sweet ginger inside temping you to take a lick.

Well, the JW Marriott Desert Springs Resort has made those dreams come true.

The Palm Desert resort has a life-size gingerbread house in its lobby that gives off a faint smell of ginger as soon as you enter the sliding doors. Once inside the 11 foot tall, 8 foot by 12 foot home, you become engulfed in the amazing scent of holiday sweetness.

“We actually put four times the amount of spices in the mix so it gives off that little bit of fragrance,” said executive pastry chef Dominique Valenzuela.

Buy Photo

JW Candyland: A Dessert Experience is a full size gingerbread house at the JW Marriott Desert Springs Resort in Palm Desert that is open to the public, December 9, 2016. (Photo11: Jay Calderon/The Desert Sun)

Valenzuela also enlisted the help of La Quinta High School culinary art students. He graduated from that same program years ago and had the current students bake half of the gingerbread bricks and create some of the huge gingerbread men that are fastened to the outside of the home. They also created the various candy decorations throughout.

“When we were at the grocery store we just ended up throwing everything into the cart,” Valenzuela said of shopping for the candy.

Each day they make sure the home is still intact and replace any missing candy or bricks that may have fallen off.

On Friday, pastry chef Christopher Moreno had a short step ladder out and was replacing a few gingerbread shingles that have fallen off the roof.

“We’ve had so many kids come through, they’re peeking their heads out the window and grabbing candy from the boxes, definitely it’s a nostalgia type feeling,” said Valenzuela. He is unaware of another life-size gingerbread home in the desert.